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A Socially Distanced Halloween at the Magic Kingdom, Part Four - The Nightmare Before Christmas
DisneyDan  Wednesday, October 7, 2020 11:04:37 AM
Hello everyone,

Previously here on the blog, I shared with you all photos from the Mickey and friends Halloween cavalcade, the Pooh friends Halloween trolley, and the Villains cavalcade. In this next instalment of my Magic Kingdom Halloween photo series I am sharing some photos of the Nightmare Before Christmas characters.

You can catch Jack Skellington, Sally Sticthes, and   [ Read More... ]
Walt Disney World Photo Trip Report, October 2015 - Part 2
DisneyDan  Monday, October 19, 2015 4:05:46 PM
Hello everyone,

In part one of my trip report I talked about our adventures at Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios and the Magic Kingdom. In this second and final part I want to share with you our experience at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP).

It had been a couple of years since we had been to MNSSHP because of all the other traveling we do, and the parties never change much anyway, however, this year there was enough that was new that   [ Read More... ]
Advent Calendar - 13th December 2014
DisneyDan  Saturday, December 13, 2014 10:22:16 PM
Hello everyone,

It's the 13th December, which means it's time to open the thirteenth door of our very special Character Central Advent Calendar!

Here we go!...

  [ Read More... ]
Advent Calendar - 13th December
DisneyDan  Friday, December 13, 2013 12:54:41 PM
It's Friday the 13th of December, which can only mean one thing... Some creepy goings-on are happening inside the Character Central Advent Calendar today!

Click to find out which ghoulish pair are counting down to Christmas!

  [ Read More... ]
News and Rumours from Around the World: Halloween and Christmas Seasons around the World, Pirates Week, WDW's New Parade and more!
DisneyDan  Friday, September 27, 2013 1:12:21 PM
Hello everyone,

Once again I have to apologise for the long gap between updates here on the blog. Unfortunately we have just been incredibly busy with real life.

Anyway, there are some important new news pieces from around the world that I want to discuss this evening. We'll start with Disneyland Paris.

Disneyland Paris has been announcing a lot of new things recently for the upcoming Halloween and Christmas Seasons, which has been well received by the fans.

This Halloween Season there will be a brand new cavalcade (which we already knew), and it has now been officially confirmed that Clarabelle Cow will be part of that. This is the first time Clarabelle has ever been to Disneyland Paris in its 21 years!
Huey, Dewey and Louie along with Scrooge McDuck were previously confirmed, and are still expected to appear in the cavalcade. Also making a welcome return to the park, albeit just for the cavalcade, are the Pumpkin Men! DLP fans will know that the Pumpkin Men (and women too) were a long-time staple of Halloween Season at DLP, often running around Main Street and Frontierland scaring guests half to death! They were a lot of fun!
Minnie Mouse will be greeting at her new dedicated Halloween location at Casey's Corner on Main Street. Various fan sites have already posted pictures of that. Her outfit is yet to be seen, although artwork suggests it will be brand new.
Bon Bon Goofy will return to Town Square, following his debut last year (it was a new outfit and new backdrop for him), as will the Villains in Fantasyland. It was suggested that one of the many Halloween themed bands that usually play throughout the park during the season will accompany the Villains this year, which would be a neat touch, to have Villainous music playing while meeting them!
Duffy the Disney Bear is also to appear on Main Street in a Halloween outfit, for the first time in Paris. It is not yet confirmed what outfit he will greet guests in, but is expected to be similar to the US pumpkin version.
Jack and Sally return to Thunder Mesa (outside Phantom Manor). Their location setup will be much the same, but with some new decorations that detail The Nightmare before Christmas more.
The Halloween Soiree (Halloween Party on the 31st October) is also set to see some more new entertainment offerings. I did hear that Maleficent and Hook would be given their own shows. Maleficent is said to be at the Castle Stage, and Hook on his ship in Adventureland. All other details, including set up etc is not yet confirmed. If and when I can find out more, I will definitely post it here. Last years Soiree saw some awesome new entertainment, which injected some much needed life into the event, after a couple years of wavering. Whether any of last years shows will return is yet to be confirmed.
It was also confirmed - in a round-about way - by a DLP official that ShellieMay would appear at the Soiree! I think his exact words were to the effect of "a good friend of Duffy is also going to make an appearance". Unless he was talking about Mickey Mouse, I think we can safely assume he meant ShellieMay! This will be the first time ever that ShellieMay has greeted regular park guests outside of Tokyo Disney Resort!
Outside of the parks, at Disney Village, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show will see the return of the Halloween version. Dates and times are yet to be confirmed, I believe.

For Christmas Disneyland Paris have confirmed that the popular Christmas Cavalcade from last year will return, and will be expanded upon, including the addition of the Gingerbread Men, from the US parks! Certainly a much welcomed addition!
Other new offerings include an updated Tree Lighting Ceremony in Town Square, narrated by Jiminy Cricket, and a special winter enchantment at Sleeping Beauty Castle using Disney's new movie, Frozen, and the Disney Dreams technology.
Jack and Sally will return to Frontierland, and for the first time in Paris, and an all but one rare appearance some years ago at Disneyland in California, Jack will be in his Sandy Claws outfit! How awesome! I am really excited to see how he looks in that.
I was also pleased to hear that the Jingle Bell Boys will return to the Videopolis in Discoveryland, where they will rock out some Christmas tunes accompanied by Mickey Mouse, who last year dazzled guests with his Big Band Beat style dance moves! (Tokyo fans will know what I mean by Big Band Beat.)
The other big news for the season is that the Parade will debut characters from Disney's Frozen on the former Romance 1 float! Featuring in the daily parade, they will glide through Parc Disneyland on a magical Frozen themed float!
I don't think it has yet been confirmed whether they will remain after Christmas Season, but seeing as this is an addition to the main parade, I would imagine they will, which would be great!

Finally for DLP, today Joe Schott (DLP Chief Operating Officer) said that the Tarzan Encounter would return to the park at some point, although they do not know when yet.
Although I know many fans will think this is "cheap" move, since the show is rather old now, it is undeniably popular, and will be a welcome re-addition to a park that has seen a bit of a lack in entertainment of late. It's definitely better than nothing!

There have been many websites and fan pages posting about the new Christmas and Halloween offerings, so I haven't linked to any one in particular as I normally would do. If you want to find out more, just do a search online or check out some dedicated DLP Facebook pages.

Over in the US, and Halloween Season is well under way. Neither Resort seems to have changed much again this year, with the one exception that both have replaced one of their Halloween Party dance parties with a Monsters Inc themed one. Magic Kingdom's MNSSHP now also have Jack and Sally greeting in Town Square.
Other than that, I don't think much else has altered. If you know any different, the please let me know!

This week at the US parks is Pirate Week for Limited Time Magic.
At Disneyland you can meet Jack Sparrow on Tom Sawyer Island, and at the Magic Kingdom Hook, Jake and Pirate Goofy have been out and about.

Over at Disney's Hollywood Studios, rather suddenly, Minnie Mouse was given a brand new greeting location inside the Animation building. While we usually like these things (and indeed the location looks neat), she now wears her regular polkadot outfit (with some "sparkle", I was told). This is actually a step back, since she had been greeting around the Big Hat in her special pink DHS outfit.

Finally, yesterday the Disney Parks Blog revealed two more concept art images for the brand new Festival of Fantasy Parade coming to the Magic Kingdom in spring 2014. Ariel and Merida's float look pretty cool, and are a world apart from the now ancient Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade, which I know fans will be glad to see the back of!

Ok, I think that is everything for today. Have a great weekend everyone,

Dan.
Advent Calendar - 17th December!
DisneyDan  Monday, December 17, 2012 12:26:58 PM
Today is the 17th of December, so it is time to open the next door of our magical Character Central Advent Calendar.

Here we go!...

  [ Read More... ]
News and Updates from around the World! New Fantasyland, MNSSHP, Frankenweenie Event, Wreck-It-Ralph, Halloween Time and MUCH more!
DisneyDan  Saturday, September 22, 2012 4:51:46 AM
Hi all,

Sorry that it has been a while since we had a proper blog update, but we have been super busy! We were of course on our long trip to Florida, which I'm sure you all followed on Facebook, and then I moved house! So yes, it has all been a bit crazy!

First up, speaking of our trip to Florida, you can check out my trip report/review of our 2 day side-trip to Universal Orlando Resort. If any of you have ever considered going over there, or have been but not for many years, you may find it useful to find out what is going on over there, and what we thought of everything - including all the awesome characters they have!

While we're on the subject of our Florida trip, Tinker Bell's "long lost sister" (yes, I know...) started making appearances last week while we were there. Of course she now has her own dedicated page on this site (albeit with not many pics yet, but in time!), so check it out!

Staying with Florida, while we were there they were also doing previews for the brand new Enchanted Tales with Belle situated in the New Fantasyland! The official opening date for a lot of the new stuff is December 6th, with previews expected shortly beforehand for those lucky ones! The fact that we got in to it in mid-September, and it doesn't open until December is quite amazing, I think!
Overall it was great to preview something so far in advance, but we were left feeling a bit disappointed that as amazing as the new area looks, and all the effort and money they have put into it, the actual Enchanted Tales experience is, well, disappointing - and we weren't the only ones who thought this. The line is likely to be really long once it opens (and as of present there is no AC nor fans under the cramped canopy outside that traps that intense Florida heat...), and when you get inside it is just a 10 minute re-telling of Belle's story, that members of the audience can participate in. There really is nothing special about it, sadly. The worst part is that you don't even get to meet Belle! This is something that could well change by Dec 6th, as I think there will be a lot of complaints from parents of young girls who thought they were waiting for an hour to meet Belle!
Like I said though, the area looks really neat, and also the animatronic Lumiere and Mme Wardrobe are pretty cool. I look forward to seeing the Be Our Guest Restaurant and all the other things that will open later this year!
We have added an Enchanted Tales with Belle page on the site already, so click on it to see all our pictures from this not-yet-open area!

We also attended the first Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party of the year while we were there, and you can check out the new, updated list of where to find all the characters this year, here.
There aren't too many changes this year. Phineas and Ferb are now in Town Square; Duffy has moved to the Boat Dock in Liberty Square; but anyway, do check out the list so that you can plan your evening! It should be note that I have since heard that when it rains, the Villains who meet in Central Plaza appear inside the Tomorrowland Terrace.

The Disney Parks Blog this week announced that the Wreck-It-Ralph characters, Ralph and Vanellope, would make their debut starting in November (no actual date given yet). In WDW they will appear where all new characters usually appear - in the Magic of Animation building in Hollywood Studios. At Disneyland they will make appearances inside the Starcade in Tomorrowland.
We'll be in DL in December and hope they are still there!

At the end of this month on the 28th, 29th and 30th September, there is a special Frankenweenie event in Downtown Disney in Florida, where they will be special screenings of other Tim Burton Disney movies, and - wait for it!- the first EVER appearances by Jack Skellington and Sally Stitches at the Walt Disney World Resort!
It is odd how they have never appeared before, especially since they already appear in DL, DLP and HKDL at Halloween. It is expected that Jack and Sally will appear between 6 and 11pm each evening, near the Harley-Davidson store.

Along the Halloween lines, Disneyland has started it's Halloween Season, and there aren't too many changes this year, except they have decided (I guess after the success of other events there) to move the bulk of the special characters and characters in Halloween costumes over to the Big Thunder Ranch area of Frontierland. Other than that, expect Disneyland's usual fun Halloween line-up!

Finally, at Disneyland Paris, as we know they have undergone a lot of changes in recent months, and their debt was restructured again just this week.
This does mean that money is sometimes tight for the Resort, and so this year, sadly, Fantillusion and Mickey's Winter Wonderland will not be returning. However, although not really an amazing replacement for a full parade and full show, they will be running a brand new Christmas Cavalcade. A smaller production than the two that were cut, for sure, but a nice change nonetheless, and something to add to the magic of the Holiday Season.
it is expected that the popular Tree Lighting Ceremony will return, as will Santa Goofy, Santa himself and all the Holiday decorations and other goodness that comes with it!!

I think that's everything for now!
We have lots of discussions going on over on the Character Central Forums, so be sure to check those out and join the fun!

Dan.

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